External Trade Bulletin of the Arab Region

This Bulletin presents data and statistical indicators on external trade in goods in the member countries of the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA). The data for this series have been primarily drawn from national sources and from secondary sources when needed. The aim of this Bulletin is to provide detailed data on intra-regional and international trade in member countries for policymakers, analysts, researchers and other users at the national, regional and international levels.

The Bulletin presents data and statistical indicators on external trade in goods of Arab Countries. Data are presented in time series until 2014 and were drawn primarily from national sources, as well as from secondary sources where appropriate. It provides total and detailed data on intraregional and international trade of Arab countries, which are useful to policymakers, analysts and researchers and other users at the national, regional and international levels.

World trade continued to grow at a slow pace for a third year in a row. Its weak growth rate of 1 per cent in 2014 is even lower than the 2.2 per cent recorded in the two previous years. According to the World Trade Organization’s data, growth in the volume of world trade reached 2.5 per cent which better matches the growth in world output during 2014. Among the factors responsible for this continued slow growth of world trade is the sudden and sustained decline of oil prices since August 2014, slow growth of the emerging economies and the slow and uneven recovery of the developed countries. In value terms, world exports reached US$ 18.4 billion in 2014. Germany and Canada achieved 4 per cent growth rates in their exports in 2014 while growth rate of USA exports settled around 3 per cent. Major developed countries witnessed negative growth rates of their exports during 2014 among them Britain which suffered a 7 per cent drop of their exports and Japan 4 per cent. The scene in the developing world was slightly similar with the exception of China and Mexico having 6 per cent and 5 per cent growth of their exports respectively. Negative growth rates of exports generally speaking characterized the rest of the developing regions that averaged 8 per cent in Africa and 6 per cent in Latin America.

This chapter presents analysis and statistics for ESCWA member countries for which data on intraregional trade in non-oil goods were available for 201٤. Available data show no common trend for intraregional exports but rather varying performance between the ESCWA countries ranging from slight increase, stable to decrease. The outcome for the region was a net decline of non-oil intraregional exports by US$ 1 billion compared to their level in 2013. Figures also highlight the increasing importance of the share of intraregional exports in the ESCWA region to total non-oil exports, which rose to 21.9 per cent in 2014 from 20.5 per cent in 2013.